MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has been directed to transfer P420.5 million to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles made the announcement during a Laging Handa briefing in Malacañang on Wednesday, March 25, saying the money will go to PhilHealth’s coronavirus packages. 

Nograles said the P425,585,000 makes up for 50% of the remainder of the standby fund earlier set aside under a  Executive Order No. 201 issued in 2003 on the Philippine government’s response to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic. 

Nograles earlier said the PhilHealth would shoulder the costs for the testing  in hospitals of the novel coronavirus disease called COVID-19. This will be on top of PhilHealth’s coverage of expenses for quarantine and isolation of patients infected with the disease.

Under the Universal Health Care Law, PhilHealth is the body tasked with implementing the National Health Insurance Program which covers all Filipino citizens.  

In line with this, the PCSO had already been identified as one of the main sources of funding for PhilHealth’s National Health Insurance Program. 

Under the recently signed Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, PhilHealth was also directed to shoulder all medical expenses of public and private health workers exposed to the coronavirus disease, as well as work-related injuries that occur during the state of national emergency. – Rappler.com